Feedback on London-Paris trip itinerary
 

Hello,

Would love feedback on our trip. We fly in/out of LHR on June 10 & 25. We'd like 4.5 days in London, Paris, 2.5-3 days in Edinburgh and 1-1.5 day in Brussels. The only musts are that we want to take the train between LON - EDI and stop in Alnmouth to visit Alnswick Castle (DD is a huge Potterhead) and she also wants to take the bullet train between PAR-LON.

My main question is which direction should we go? At first, I was thinking stay in LON, take the train up to EDI, fly to BRU or PAR and then back to LON and either do a daytrip to BRU from Paris or fly into BRU from EDI, stay a nite and take the train from BRU to PAR. Any thoughts?

The main thing we'll do in BRU is hang out in Grand Place for chocolate, beer and waffles. And in Paris, I'd like to get out to Giverny and Versailles. Thanks for your input!

Well -- you have some logistics problems wanting to take trains between London and Edinburgh and London and Paris AND need to return to London to fly home.

One way to accomplish this would be to do London first, then train to Edinburgh, then fly to Brussels, train to Paris, train to London, fly home. You would need to be in London the night before your flight home. Is July 10 your arrival day, or when you board your flight to London (arriving July 11) Assuming you arrive at LHR July 10 you have 15 nights/14.5 days free (you can't really count July 25). 5 nights London, 3 nights Edinburgh, 2 nights Brussels, 4 nights Paris, 1 night London (at a LHR hotel if your flight is early AM, central city if later in the day).

Going to Alnwick would require two separate tickets -- one London to Alnmouth and another Alnmouth to Edinburgh. BUT -- visiting the Castle and Gardens requires a few hours and the train up from London is 3.5-4 hours (depending on which train you catch) and Alnmouth to Edinburgh takes an hour. So nearly 5 hours train time, 30 mins taxi time to/from the castle and three hours minimum at Alnwick means you would only have 1 day in Edinburgh.

With your very short time in Paris there would be no time left for the city itself if you want two day trips.

​​​​​​​Can you drop Brussels? London, Edinburgh and Paris would be a much less hectic trip.

I'd drop Brussels, you can get waffles in Paris and the chocolate is not bad, plus you are wasting time and money traveling to a second class tourist city when you have so little time.

Bullet trains, Japan top speed 320kmh. Eurostar tops out at 300km/hr (186mph)

This would have been a good candidate for open-jaw air tickets, but it seems it's too late now. When you figure in transit time, plus packing and unpacking and general orientation, 4.5 days for London and Paris is giving very short shrift to both of them. I can't see how you'd manage any sort of daytrip out of Paris.

I'd start by dropping Brussels. Going there for chocolate, beer, and a waffle simply isn't worth it. You can get all of those things easily in Paris

Thanks all.

Yes, I've already booked the flights b/c I had to due to using points and limited seats, etc. etc. etc. I would've preferred leaving from Paris too, but it wasn't doable.

I can drop Brussels, but not Edinburgh. DH is getting an online degree there and insists on seeing the campus. So about 2-3 days there is fine w/me.

Yes, sorry, I meant Eurostar, not bullet train. Should I go LON-EDI-PAR-LON or LON-PAR-EDI-LON? The only advantage I see is using the Eurostar 2-1 discounts in Paris, whereas we'd be gone if we save the Eurostar trip from Paris to London for the day before we leave. Any other dis/advantages I'm missing either way?

>>Should I go LON-EDI-PAR-LON or LON-PAR-EDI-LON?<<

Makes absolutely no difference itinerary-wise. You'd fly between CDG and EDI - just depends which direction. Same w/ the trains - you'd have the same train journeys - one direction or the other. One thing though, if you DO decide on the second option LON-PAR-EDI-LON - then you'll be better off flying from EDI to LHR the evening before your flight home. Or you could fly down in the early AM if your flight home is after noon.

Book those bullet trains way early for discounted fares - early bird gets the worm as discounted fares are sold in limited numbers- London to Paris v.v. www.eurostar.com; Paris-Brussels www.thalys.com. Ditto for slow fast trains London-Edinburgh -book at National Rail Enquiries - Official source for UK train times and timetables. There are also overnight trains London to various Scottish stations. Lots on trains - www.seat61.com - great tips booking own tickets online; BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com.

Agree with janis about making no difference which way you go. Do whatever gives you cheapest air fares.

Didn't know there were any real "bullet trains" outside Japan. Not all high-speed rail is a bullet train.

Consider dropping Brussels, adding a day/night to Edinburgh and doing the daughter's potterhead trip from Edinburgh, not en route from London to Edinburgh (or vice versa).

Semantics - Japanese Bullet trains go slightly less faster than some bullet trains in France and Spain. Many sources use the term bullet train in general though Japan's was the first one. What makes a bullet train to you - shape?

Thank you--side question: It seems like sunset isn't until 9 or 10pm?!? That is ridiculously late compared to where we live. Is that really the case? And why is it? So is that why people have tea? They stay up later and eat dinner/supper later?

There's a reason the summer solstice is called "the longest day" in English.

Everywhere on earth gets the same amount of daylight every year. At the Equator, that means 12 hours a day, every day. At the poles (to simplify crudely) it means 24 hours of daylight in midsummer and 24 hours of darkness in midwinter.

The closer to the poles you go, the longer daylight lasts in summer, and the longer it stays dark in winter. Since Britain's much further north than the US, we get much longer summer days and much shorter winter ones. But to add to the confusion, we also have much milder winters than Americans, even though London's north of Calgary.

Why's that? Because we're such lovely people and God decided She'd reward us for it. And, of course, She's English.

Hope you manage to be in PAris for June 21s.. Fete De La Music.. music /bands /performers all over the city that evening ( and day ) .. lots of fun.

I have no idea where you live -- but unless at the equator (as flanner mentions) aren't your days much longer in Summer than in winter?

It is just more dramatic the farther north you go. So here in Northern California it is just a few hours difference but places a lot father north (like Alaska, Russia, even just Seattle) daylight is MUCH longer in summer and MUCH shorter in winter. The UK is pretty far north close to the same latitude as southern Alaska.

If Europe were not warmed by the Gulf Stream it would be rather like yes Calgary - climate change some think may cause the Gulf Stream to change and turn northern Europe into a winter wonderland. Not in most of our lifetimes however.

On June solstice the days in the northern hemisphere are maximum length ranging from 12 hrs (at equator, where it is always 12 hrs) to the pole (24 hrs). This is caused by the tilt of the earth's axis. When maximally toward the sun, this results in more hours of daylight. Contrary to the belief of may people, the long hours have nothing to do with the earth being closer to the sun (It's not in June) or the tilt making people in the northern hemisphere closer to the sun. The closeness caused by the tilt is insignificantly small. (tens of thousands of miles compared to 93 million to the sun...a drop in the bucket.)

Here is a link to a diagram. If you draw a latitude line (parallel to the equator) at your location, you will see that the tilt causes you to be in the day's light more than in the night's dark as you rotate...in the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere it's the opposite, because the earth moves to the opposite side of its orbit around the sun, reversing the tilt:

https://c.tadst.com/gfx/750x500/june...stration.png?2

ssander

Length of days and hours of sunshine are two separate things.

>>It seems like sunset isn't until 9 or 10pm?!? That is ridiculously late compared to where we live. Is that really the case?<<

Yeah. In late May in Bayeux we had full sunset after 9:30 pm - it was still light when I walked back to our B&B after watching the Champions League Final. On the solstice, it's sunny later.

Paris is just short of the 49th parallel (48th and 51 min). Boston is more than 7 degrees south of that. Finland calls itself "the land of the midnight sun." Understand?

And because Paris is only a few degrees east of London, its sunsets are nearly an hour later (like living on the Arizona/California border in winter - gets dark an hour later in 'Zona).

Yes drop Brussels and spend more time in Paris.

Especially when it rains.

Rain can be a plague in northern France/Belgium but it can be really nice too. Very variable. Paris has enough indoor sites enjoyable in any weather. But prepare for wet weather.